Dear friends,
Happy to meet you all. Happy also to note your
concern for progress in the spiritual aspect of our life. There is
the mundane aspect, which is overwhelmingly becoming important for
us, so much so we tend to neglect the spiritual side. It is
necessary that we should proceed on both the fronts equally well.
Nobody flies with one wing, no bird can do that nor can we totally
succeed with only materialistic approach. So, I should congratulate
you for this much of viveka that
you have got, namely that there is another side of our life, namely
the spiritual aspect of our life. People tend to use yoga even today in many places for
material benefit only. They will ask me whether it gives you breath
control, blood pressure control, sugar control or many other
diseases with which we suffer. These questions are better presented
to doctors rather than to a spiritual person, though it has been a
habit for some reason or the other, people tend to ask such
questions. They belong to the physiological plane and better
attended to by the doctors who know more about it. Incidentally
many things can happen, when you control the mind, the body also
gets some amount of control. Yoga
also has been confused with lot of exercises, physical exercises.
They do good, they are supposedly doing good to so many people
about which I am personally not aware of, nor had I at any point of
time any inclination to practice any one of them. So I will be the
least competent person to talk about that, though at the schools, I
was taught certain exercises and a good sports man myself and there
the matter ends. I never took it to be a way of controlling
diseases. This is enough as an introduction about other aspects of
yoga.
We are talking today about the efficacy of
Rajayoga. By now you have been introduced to the subject of Rajayoga as a means of utilizing the
thought force in us for union with the Ultimate. Ultimate here
means the cosmos, the entire life force, the entire energy. Some
people prefer to call it Divinity, some people prefer to call it
God, I don't mind any definition you give for it but there is a
force above, we are not independent, we are interdependent - this
is one fundamental truth that we have to learn in life. No person,
however big he may be and however small he may be, can claim to be
independent. We are dependent upon others, we are dependent upon
the environment, and we are dependent upon the society. There are
various relationships and the matrix is really very very
complicated so if any person says that he is independent, we don't
agree to it. The life force is there in all and in each one of us
whether it is a plant or an animal or a friend or a foe, it doesn't
matter much, the same life force is there. There is a fundamental
unity amongst all of us. Saints called it God; some other people
may call it by some other name, it does not matter much. God has
neither a form nor a name, so call Him by whatever way you like. It
is what He is. He is just what He is. THAT. That is That. That's
all. Om Tat Sat. That's all. There is nothing more. All other
things are our relationships which we feel, as we feel to so many
people so many relationships, again go on changing our
relationships with them, again re-changing them. Attitudes do
change towards every person. A person who was a friend yesterday
becomes all of a sudden somebody neutral tomorrow and day after
tomorrow perhaps enimical to your interests. These things do
happen, relationships vary, but the essence is always there. The
essence of communication that is there between you and me is
irrevocable.
We always move in the same wavelength of
Divinity, there is one thing, superficially there are differences.
Rajayoga aims at arriving at
that thought, which is there at the base. This thought which is
there which is not coloured with anything else. It is we who colour
the thought, the thought by itself has no colour. Consciousness is
always pure and simple, it is not tainted, it is not vitiated, it
is in no way affected by anyone of our relations or emotions. So
what happens during our meditations is, we try to meditate on the
Divine light without luminosity, as the method is. Divine light
without luminosity is an impossible idea. We can understand light
with some luminosity. We can think about some intensity of the
light, we can think of so many things, color of the light, we can
see the smallness of it or the bigness of it but light by itself
without luminosity if we can think of, you would have reached the
highest stage of consciousness but it is an impossibility. Mind is
not capable of comprehending that idea.
The very purpose of this system of yoga is to make you understand that
Ultimate is something that you will never know. It is beyond your
mind, your mind cannot reach that. That is what the Vedas have said
'Na tatra vak gacchati na mano na vijno na vijanimo'- you
cannot go there,you cannot reach that. It is far beyond. Whatever
you think it is something other than that. NETI NETI. Whatever you
say it is not that. Something beyond, something beyond. So this
beyond-ness of the Divinity is what we are trying to have access
to, because you have that in your heart. The mysterious thing is,
that which is far far beyond our comprehension, is so near to us in
our heart. It is beyond our comprehension but it is easily
comprehendible by our feeling. You can feel it but you can never
know it. If you try to know through logic, you will never know.
Nahi nahi rakshati dukrun karane. No vyakarana can help
you, no grammar can help you, no logic can help you, you have to
understand only through your feeling. God's language is feeling,
God's language is in silence, not in words. So long as it's a word
it is already distorted. Whether it is our Vedas or whether it is
our Bible, it does not matter much, they are distorted. The
original thing is the feeling, the feeling you have. That is why
the call of God is Nistraygunyo Bhavarjuna; Vedha trigunya
vishayaaha nistraigunyo bhavarjuna. You have got to go beyond,
the point is God is beyond the Vedas - the word. The essence is
something that defies any structure. Any structure you try to give
for God is something that is limiting God and chaining God in
bondage. That which is free can never be bound, God by definition
is free, energy by definition is free. We can bind it in the form
of electricity, in the form of magnetism, in the form of light, in
any form that we like, but energy as such is something far beyond
this. So this is the feeling that we have got to have.
So when you start meditation in this system, the
first thing that happens to you is that you become aware of the
vibrations of the Ultimate Consciousness. When you have your
sitting, some of you will feel vibrations, some of you will feel
calmness, some of you as usual feel enormous noise outside and
inside. Noise outside you cannot help it because it is there in the
road. Noise inside, it is your complication. You have got so many
feelings, you have got so many attitudes, you have got so many
thoughts, you have got so many responsibilities. All of them will
come to you one after the other. You try to sit down in calmness
you will find all these things coming together. You engage yourself
in some task, all of them seem to disappear almost because you are
task oriented. Since you are task oriented, your mind is only on
that. When you try to empty yourself and then sit somewhere, all
the thoughts will come to you, bombard you and that is the nature
of vacuum, please note it. Vacuum is such when you try to have
vacuum in some place, all the air around you tries to enter that.
You must be knowing the famous experiment of trying to heat up a
tin and then as it throws out the hot air goes out, put a cork and
then the shape of the tin is lost for the only reason air wants to
enter, it has no chance of entering into it and then the can
becomes totally twisted and wrinkled totally out of shape. Similar
is our mind when we try to keep your mind calm, what happens is all
thoughts will come to you. It is not thoughts which come to you,
they are thoughts which are there in you which are trying to go
out, which want expression, which want attention. So many things
which you forcibily put down and were attending to certain other
things, they kept quiet. When you are calm, all of them will come
to you and then they want precedence to be established 'Now I will
try to come, no no I am more important'. So many thoughts, some
exams may be there, some promotions may be there, some
responsibilities of going to the shop may be there, may be you have
got to get certain things for your children, may be you have to
attend to your parents, may be you have got something connected
with your house, so many things. Everything with which you are
connected comes there at that time, you really get confused and
then prefer it is much better to have one word by which I can go on
reciting, that seems to be much more easier because then your mind
is given an attention, an object - you have got some toy to play
with. It can be Om Namahsivaya
or Namo Narayanaya, it does not matter much. Or O' Ram or hey Ram,
whatever you choose. Your mind is going to a word and then it is
definitely absorbed in that because it is given a toy. In the other
case of meditation where you are asked not to think of anything and
think about a Divine light which you cannot think of and then you
get confused, because the mind gets filled up with all thoughts, it
just rushes in. Now we say to you at that time, try to be as
indifferent to it as possible, don't give attention to it, treat
them as uninvited guests. Easily spoken, easily said, it is very
difficult when actually you practice. I won't say it is too easy, I
won't say it is too complex but first you have to learn this, learn
to ignore, learn to ignore many things because you know that is not
what you are seeking for. For that you have to learn two attitudes
-one is you have got to be attentive and secondly you have got to
be alert. Alert to the moments of silence that comes to you,
attentive to the moments of silence that comes to you. It is just
like a person who waits in a bus stand for a particular friend. He
is to pass by that place and so many people go in the road, so many
cars go, so many buses go, so many taxis go, and you are not going
to attend to any one of them. You are waiting only for your friend
and your mind is only for him. It is attentive towards him and it
is alert for his presence. You just don't bother about anybody
else. Similarly here, when you are in meditation please develop
this attitude. If you develop this attitude you will be in a better
position to meditate for long.
Now I am asked to talk about the efficacy of
this system. The efficacy of this system is, first two things have
to be taken into consideration. One is your own effort and other is
the help of the Master in your meditation. I can say with enormous
confidence and practical knowledge about it, that this is the only
system where we give the assistance of the Master throughout your
progress. This does not start with a course and end with giving a
mantra after some time nor by prescribing a method at a particular
time but it is a continuous life long association that we seek with
you, because you are seeking life long association with the Divine
and the Divine must help you throughout. We ensure that you feel
the presence of the Divine till the end. This is felt by the
Pranahuti, which is an experience that you will go through and you
will know the nearness of God. Everybody has told that God is in
the heart, everybody has told that there is no exception to this
but to make you feel that calmness even momentarily was something
that was not there in the earlier periods. Here, because of the
influx of Pranahuti, you do feel that and it is for you to feel and
practice. So that aspect of it is to be taken into consideration
while we discuss the efficacy of Rajayoga in this system.
If you take your heart into consideration, this
is where most of our feelings are. Thoughts of course may be even
at the buddhi level but at the
manasic level all our feelings are there. Manas is at heart, buddhi is connected with the intellect. Actually we
have got the intellect - the buddhi, manas - I think I will try and keep this feeling
aspect, ahankar - ego feeling, ego I would replace it by 'I', I
feeling, and chitta Âbecause
there is no equivalent word in English for this so far as I know.
These are all the four components of our mind. This buddhi is connected with our school subject such
as (A+B)2- all such knowledge you can put it straight
into that because there is no consequence, there is no feeling
connected with it. It is something, some mathematics, 1234 -
whatever it is you know that, you don't know that. People perhaps
now a days recognize people only with this capacity ignoring other
three. The self-respect aspect of it, this has come here actually
self (ego). Then the manas is
predominant feelings of yours that you have. This is what is
guiding us. It is only for satisfying the parents' interest that we
go for some course. My father wants me to become an engineer
therefore I become an engineer. My father wants me to go to a
doctor so I go to a doctor. Why do you do this? My wife wants me to
do this. Why do you do this? My husband would like that. Most of
our actions are governed by these. If you see these, our feelings
are directed towards the lower portion. Lower portion means
actually physiological drives of food, water, shelter. Our
thoughts, our feelings are invariably connected with all these
things, either one of these things. If you just can check up your
present state of mind, your thoughts will be connected only with
this. For getting food you do a job, you have to do. Everything is
connected with these four.
As on date majority of us are governed by these
and perhaps will ever be governed by it. There is no way out of
these things because so long as life is there, principle of life is
that of urges, there is no chance of getting out of these things.
Animals are condemned once and all for that position. There is no
way by which they can change their cycles. When it becomes hungry,
it just finds its prey. It has to go and finds its food there is no
alternative for it. When it is thirsty, it will go to the nearest
possible source of water. When it is on season, it is on heat, it
will definitely find its mate. There is no way out of these things.
There is no chance for an animal to come out of it. Human beings
are the only persons, only animals where we are given an option to
control them. We know how to control hunger. You feel hungry but
then you wait for the dinner, you wait for the lunch. Your mother
says it takes some more time for your food please wait. We wait, we
don't grab it. If you then note whether that is so in your case and
if you are very honest about it, I am sure there must have been
occasions when you must have pinched at something out of the
kitchen - may be a fruit, may be something else, something edible
stuff, if nothing else the pulses going straight into your mouth -
the animal has not left us, please note this. It is that state of
mind which you are trying to control, it is that impulsive state,
impulsive nature. Animals are propelled, impelled, compelled -
there is no alternative they have to behave like that. We need not
behave like that, God has given us that much of liberty, that much
of freedom, but we do not exercise that. Culture, education, social
development, all these things you can see are the parameters by
which we judge whether a person is advanced or not advanced. We
apply these meters, what is his behavior? A tribal fellow how he
behaves? A cannibal, how he behaves? A socially developed person,
how he behaves? i.e. man has been persistently making efforts to
control these urges and then arrived at certain ways of living,
which he calls cultured ways. Don't behave like that they say, you
are animal don't try to be like that. While that is so, in majority
of the cases people have followed, now present day civilization
seems to be moving in another direction of trying to have as much
as what we want to satisfy these urges. I don't want to go into
value systems because that is not the topic. The topic is how are
we going to control these things? However much we try, there are
occasions when you fall for these and of course these you just
can't help it. Water is something that you will be forced to take
and perhaps there is no difficulty in taking it and this one also,
kama and krodha, you know you become slaves to it. That is why
extraordinary attention has been given to it in tradition and they
say you must know how to control these. Consequential feeling that
you get is, when you are asking for some drive satisfaction, you
find others also are striving towards the same thing and there is a
conflict and it leads to rage, anger, confrontation. When more than
one person tries for the same object then naturally confrontation
and that is what we generally express as krodh. One is the kam,
another is krodh
So these two things are the essential factors we
have got to control and they seem to be inbuilt in our animal
nature. All my previous discussion is only to point out that we
seem to be conditioned by these two things almost. Animals are
conditioned we know that, we also seem to be having no option over
this. Other systems of yoga
have tried to totally abolish these things by whatever means it is
Âsuppression, oppression, by way of privation or deprivation, you
can use any method by which they try to see that you get away from
the family, go away to forest, go and stay in some mountains, get
far off from the man, don't get into the situations, try to be away
as far away as possible but this system is meant for a grihastha,
for a man living here, a family life and these two things are the
most important drives that you have got to attend to and you will
not be in a position to suppress it, you are not supposed to also.
So we always ask here try to learn moderation. Let the
impulsiveness go and let some sanity be there. The institutions of
marriage were established only for this. Social solutions like the
institutions of justice were maintained only for this, so that we
won't come out. What are the individual solutions for this? To
conform to the social institutions. You know better what our
reaction to social institutions is today. We are trying to question
every one of them. We don't want to stand by the judgment of some
judge who says you are at fault, even when he says that it has been
established this fellow has murdered Rajiv Gandhi, he would like
still an appeal to the President. Nobody is prepared to accept it.
Principles of justice is being questioned. I am not going to the
minor details. I am talking about a major details of only one
incident, you can add hundreds. Our individual positions are such
that in our own house, for no reason we fight with our brother, for
no reason we fight with our sisters, for the sake of some object,
for the sake of something which you think you deserve more than he
or she, all our fights are coming from this. Principles of
education unfortunately are founded on this. We have got somebody
who is first in the class and then somebody who is last in the
class. Whoever has given us that right to distinguish them I do not
know but that is what education is. Every one of us learn at our
own pace. Incidentally that is the reason why we have got a school,
which says that is the school for slow learners. We would like
everybody to be treated on par. The grace of God is equal on all
and there is no question of superiority or inferiority. The problem
is connected with basic instincts. How best can I over take the
other man in killing him is what we are trying to justify by saying
'yes he is the first man, he is the last man'. That is the reason
why you have got the word in the marketing today 'he had a kill
today'. What is that word? What disgraceful words we are using to
say that we are cultured. So these two things are the fundamental
points. On this there is no solution in the tradition as to how to
do it. They told so many things. They said be in good company, be
in good thoughts, trying to be with only good people, try to do
only good things, try to learn some moral stories, try to live
according to those expectations. All these things we have heard but
then man has been more intelligent than those words which express
some sanity. We have found every way by which we can deceive
everyone one of the Panchatantras. All our Ithihasas have lost
their value, all our Puranas have lost their value, nobody wants to
follow anyone of them. We have become intelligent, our buddhi has gone far beyond. Agreed,
there is no doubt about it but what is the solution, still the
problem is there. The problem is sought to be solved by the
principle of moderation and for that we have got to lift this mind
which goes to the lower mind, the thought force which flows down
generally goes steep, some effort has to be made to go up.
Tradition has made so many efforts of education
and other things. In this system through Pranahuti, the first
effort that is made is the flow of consciousness to the lower mind
is sought to be diverted to the upper portion. This is the work of
the Master which he does, which he does, you can be rest
assured but you are given two things to do. You are asked to
meditate on points A and B about which more details will be given
by our brothers. They are two points located in the chest. There
are two points A and B on which you are asked to meditate and if
you meditate on these things as prescribed, it is our experience
that our impulsive tendencies come down. This is the positive
assurance that we give in the system namely that if you meditate on
these two as prescribed with the help of the Pranahuti that is already done, in this system you
get the advantage of control over the impulsive tendencies of your
basal stuff, the drives. Once you control the drives or once you
can put it under some reasonable control and get rid of the
impulsive tendencies, you know you have won three-fourths the war,
the war of control over ourselves because that is what exactly is
our problem. If you look to yourself and see what type of thoughts
that come, to you they are invariably connected to those four as I
have already said but it is also true that you have thoughts of
aspiration.
Fortunately God has given us a mind which
aspires, aspiration is a word that is applicable only to the human
level. No animal can aspire for anything, it has no capacity to
think. Even in certain forms of thinking that is there in some
animals like chimpanzee or a dog, they don't aspire for anything.
We aspire, what is the first aspiration we have got? First
aspiration we have got is sharing. This as an instinct is already
available in the case of lions and similar prides. They don't eat
the food alone, they share. There are animals which share food,
there are animals which will not share food. Sharing is not a
principle that we accepted as aspiration just like that, there are
animals at the lower level but instinctively they will feel it. I
am not talking about the mother's love which is common, mother's
instinct is entirely different but this instinct of trying to share
food with others is what we have learned from some animals. That is
the reason lion is a king of animals, there are many more powerful
animals than the lion which can kill the lion also but this is the
reason. Here the first principle is sharing and this we have
developed as an aspiration and what is it driving at? It drives at
trying to view what you think you should have, the physiological
drive of hunger is sought to be moderated. You first give your
children then you take, then you give elders then you take. You
don't take directly. A civilized society is one where the food is
shared first with children then with elders then with oneself.
So the principle of sharing which we have
learned from animal instinctual level, we got it as an aspiration
and we said in this land when somebody comes to you, you treat that
person as an athithi and give him food first and then only you take
later. A value which we seem to have almost forgotten today for
whatever reason it may be, that is what it is. Even relatives are
not welcomed and thanks to certain amount of westernization, do not
go to a house without information and we say if anybody comes to
you without information treat him as a God. You can see the
difference in value points of the two societies. One society does
not want a person to come without intimation. Another society says
if anybody comes to you without intimation treat him as a God. This
is another important thing that you should be very very careful in
meditation. In meditation what happens is you get certain thoughts
totally uninvited, you have got all sorts of thoughts coming to you
and all of a sudden some thought comes to you. That thought is God
and Godly but we are the first persons to miss it, we always miss
the athithi, uninvited guest is God always.
It is from the adhyathmika point of view, our
people have brought in the tradition to the mundane level day to
day life they brought in the concept of athithi because the athithi
comes to you more in meditation than elsewhere. There are more
sparks of the Divine during meditation than you can think of or you
can dream of because God loves us so much that he is always yawning
towards you. He would like to enter into you and the moment you
create a vacuum He is prepared to fill it but then we are so
attentive to the other things like our going to the market which
takes precedence over our attentiveness to this. That is the reason
why we say please be attentive and alert, athithi can be recognized
only when you are attentive. There are umpteen number of stories of
people when God has personally visited them and this man has said
'no no I have got something else to do' and he forgot, he never
attended to them and it happened to be the wives of some saints. A
lady received a guest, the God Himself who comes, she does not
recognize Him as such because he came uninvited uninformed, he came
and then it was left to the saint to recognize later and poor man
he said 'you are more lucky than me you have seen the God and I
have not'. The stories go, these are all common knowledge you
should be knowing. My point is the sharing as a principle
develops.
Unless this sharing develops, you will not be in
a position to develop tolerance. This is another great virtue of
this country which we are maintaining and we shall forever
maintain, because this is consequent to that and this comes to you
only when you learn to share and not behave impulsively towards
certain things. This becomes natural once impulsive nature is
reduced. A brother of mine was asking, some of us are prepared to
share, some of us are not sir why is it so. I said yes, control has
not come. Impulsive nature makes you hold it, you don't want to
share, and you would like to save it. Impulsive nature alone is the
principle for saving, you would like to have it tomorrow. Saving is
a very very obnoxious idea in spirituality that is why Prophet
Mohammed said please do not bother about the next day, God is
there, He will give. He was wise, and that's why I think he also
said don't try to lend money, he said give it if you got money,
give it, don't lend. Lending was not permitted by him because who
are you to lend. Whose is it? It is His. It belongs to the cosmos,
nothing belongs to you. Everything belongs to the universe, nobody
has got a right to say this is mine, because your existence itself
is transient. Now, that we will come to later and naturally along
with it comes service. So these two principles of spirituality will
develop the moment you try to be attentive to the upper portion of
your self, the aspiration portion of your self. This is the first
thing that comes to you in this system.
Now when you sit in meditation thinking that
there is Divine light in the heart, as I told you, you will get lot
of thoughts, but then, when you learn to be attentive only to the
Divine light and nothing else, everything else fades out into
nothingness. They don't have any impelling nature to attract your
attention. That leads us to understand what exactly I am, who am I.
This who am I question is one of the toughest questions to answer.
If any one of you can help me with the definition of what you are
as you understand, I will be very happy. You can at best tell me
your name, you can give your physical description, your status -
financial, official, relationships as wife, husband, son, father,
so on and so forth. Kindly exclude these adjectives for yourself
and then tell me what you are. You are none of these things, right?
I have at least three names, one name is Narayana, but the other
two names are also given to me. Most of us among Hindus we get more
than one name. Physical descriptions - I am not the same physical
body from childhood. You can't give that, your weights vary,
complexion varies. If you see all these things, can you think of
yourself other than these? And all these things are transient, all
these things are temporary. You are a son one day you are a father
today, grandfather day after. What are you? What are you? In
relation to somebody you are somebody. What are you? This is the
first and the foremost question that a man faces in spiritual life.
Who am I? And if by God's Grace you have already got into the
principle of sharing and service then you will know that I am a
person to share, that I am a person to serve. Other than these two
things there is nothing else that is permanent with you. These two
things are permanent with you from your childhood. You are somebody
to share and you are somebody to serve. Who that somebody is, you
can call yourself by Narayan or Adinarayan, or you can call
purushotham, you can call Govinda, it does not matter much by what
name you call yourself but your essential nature is one of sharing
and serving and that leads us to a metaphysical concept about which
I will not be in a position to talk much.
God in essence and God in manifestation. God in
essence talked briefly earlier saying that there is no way of
knowing Him, He is beyond all understanding. What is God in
essence? We said we don't know, Divine light without luminosity we
said we just don't know. Na Tatra Vak Gacchati Na Mano Na Vijno
Na Vijanimo. This is what He is. God in manifestation it is
you and me, it is this stream, it is this mountain, it is this
river - we are the manifestation and we are Gods in expression. And
what did God do first? He did first Purushamedha as we
call it. The Purushasuktha of the Vedas is the most
important one, the first one that is stated namely, God has
sacrificed Himself to come into manifestation. It is God who
sacrificed Himself to come into manifestation. He ceases to be His
essence and He wanted to be His manifestation and we are all He and
the principle here is He wanted to share, He wanted to serve.
Sacrifice is another aspiration we have got. We
have got to sacrifice. Mother sacrifices, instinctively you know
that mother sacrifices lot of her interests for the sake of the
children. Imitating the mother the father also sacrifices, he
learns the value from her. It is the mother who tells, you have got
to attend to the child more, it is time to educate, it is time to
give him food, it is time that you should go and do something for
him. It is the mother who teaches the principles of sacrifice,
which is reason why the Vedas always used the word Mathrudevo
Bhava, please note it. For no other reason we use that word.
This is the reason why she gets a precedence over the father. She
participates in the Divine function of sacrifice first, and then
she teaches that lesson to the husband. Now, here God in essence,
God in manifestation having the principles of sharing, serving and
the third principle we have got, sacrifice. If we learn these three
things in life we have learnt almost everything of spirituality. If
we can behave like this it's enough but then what stands in the
way? What stands in the way of our doing it? Why is it we are not
prepared to part with money, a few rupees that we have earned today
with others? It is because we have not learned to serve, we have
not learned to sacrifice, we have not learned to share. We think it
is ours.
The possessiveness is one of the things that we
have learned unnecessarily and that is the nature of a tiger and
not a lion. Lion kills its prey and then throws it off and then
goes after eating it while the tigers save it for the next day.
Please note this fear of not getting food tomorrow is there more
with the tigers than with the lions. I am comparing both the wild
animals, there are few more satvic animals which I can bring into
the picture but then I want you to understand even the noble
animals are those which share, the ignoble animals are those which
try to save it and then after all it may die then it goes waste.
These values we have forgotten but they are spiritual values, they
are not social values, they are entirely different. Social values,
I have told you already marriage institutions, they are different,
spiritual values are different.
So now what stands in your way is your self and
once you know there is no such thing like self and you are only a
relationship, a bundle of relationships, you will not try to own
anything. The sat-asat viveka automatically dawns on you. This is the
nature of the first knot. There are 13 knots in our system as
depicted by SriRamchandraji Maharaj. The nature of the First knot
is trying to distinguish between what is sat and what is asat, what is permanent what is not
permanent. I try to come to this point through a non vedantic
method, because vedantic methods are there to teach this but I
don't believe in that because for practical people we want to know
what exactly the problem is.
Everybody knows we are not going to live
tomorrow, thereby we don't grant ourselves non-existence, we don't.
Once you know your relationship, sit in meditation and then see
what you are then you know there is only one friend for you and
that is God. He is with you, the only friend. All other
friendships, all other relationships are transient. He is the one
with whom we are born, He is the one who will continue to be there
even after our death, because energy doesn't go anywhere. There is
only change in the form of energy but then nothing happens, the
energy itself is there, you are going to continue. In what levels
you will continue is a separate issue, but then we continue,
because matter can never be destroyed, energy cannot be got rid
off. You are energy, so you will continue to be there. So those
people, present day, present morality which is governed by the
thought that after our death nothing is going to be there and
doesn't matter much whether I exploit the other person or kill him
or do whatever I want with him; is wrong, because he is going to
continue. You cannot help it; it is in the nature of energy to
continue. Matter can never be destroyed, energy can never be
destroyed, it is there, it is bound to be there, it will have its
own effects. What it will be? On that there can be various ways of
looking at things but it will be there is a fact; to this extent
you cannot deny scientific approach. So what I am trying to say is,
this person, this energy which has been there with me will continue
to be there with me forever and this is the governing principle of
sharing. If I don't develop the sharing principle I am not going to
be in tune with it and why I am not able to share is because of my
selfishness, self-centeredness, thinking that I am more real than
the essence, the essence is more real than me. Once this satasat
viveka comes, the first knot
dawns and then your yatra starts. You start moving further; you
start moving further as to what exactly it is.
All right I am not permanent, there is something
that is going to be permanent, what exactly it is. Then you start
tending to develop, once this sat-asat viveka comes then certain amount of detachment starts,
till the time no detachment is possible. Detachment for us really
means attachment to the Divine, you tend to know more and more the
sat and you tend to know less
and less this asat i.e. detachment. Detachment with the asat and
attachment to the sat is the basic
way of movement in spiritual life. We move towards what is true,
what is permanent, what is impermanent we try to give as little
importance as possible. In the language of SriRamchandraji Maharaj
we do not develop undue attachment, due attachment is what we
develop. Treat everything on its merits, not with any extra
relationships. Relationships are what make your self as I told you.
Because of those relationships, you have got this undue attachment.
You forget your relationships and treat yourself as the one who is
connected only with God and nobody else, the truth alone will stay
and then you have due attachment. Many abhyasis have been asking
me, Sir, please tell us what is due attachment and what is undue
attachment. Any attachment that you have got with reference to any
relationship that you have got is only undue attachment. The only
due attachment that we have can have is with reference to sat, the
truth, the principle of Divinity in us. This is a condition and no
amount of my explaining this system will make you understand what
it is. So this leads us to the first knot, first is sat-asat viveka and then you also understand
that you have got to have only due attachment.
You know the transience of your self and various
colors, various expansions are felt, in all these things you will
find again certain things, you feel that you seem to be nearing it
with that condition of sat-asat viveka, nearing it, you seem to
know that there is something like sat and asat, nearness. This is the word in sanskrit
we generally use the word samipyatha. We seem to be moving
towards that feeling, it is not as though we have established
there. We seem to know yes there seems to be something like this.
Then we enter into that, we enter into that state, you are more
established here. You definitely know that this is permanent, that
is not permanent. Then that comes under salokyatha, then
we live in that world, start moving. We become similar to that,
that condition itself is yourself, you feel that you are that,
nobody is attached to you, you are attached only to the Divine, you
are entirely one. Then you have got the laya, mergence. In every
feeling you have got these four states; If you are attentive to
your sadhana, you will find in every state that is going to be this
and later. You will be feeling nearness to it, you will be feeling
and then you will be feeling you are entering into that; you start
feeling the breeze of that, you start experiencing that, that is
perhaps while you are that's the world. If you want to put the
grossest of analogy; if you are getting into an A/C room, as you
enter it, you know you are getting into a cool place, when you
settle there, you really become cool, as you enter it you feel it
the nearness to it - this is salokyatha and then you have got the
sarupyatha where you become similar to that, your nature itself
becomes that and then the mergence. This mergence is a mergence not
to be lost here forever, but to move on, we should move on to the
next condition. Each laya
takes us to the next stage and that is the one of the toughest
problems we have got here and that is why so many people who are
viraktas, who have become sanyasis, who have gone to forests, who
have taken to so many avadoot conditions are stuck up in laya.
Laya is really interesting, you
feel one with it, you don't like to leave it. Laya is the condition that we would like to hold but
layas are at different levels. Different levels of laya and each one would like to hold on forever
there. You are comfortable there but then here in this system
through Pranahuti you are
pushed out. This is one of the experience of majority of abhyasis
who will say, Sir, yesterday I had a most absorbing condition,
today I am again disturbed. Yes, you are bound to be disturbed, you
are not allowed to have laya
there. If you have got laya that
means you got stuck up. If you get feeling of mergence and stay
permanently in that state that means you got stuck up. Journey is
infinite, the yatra shall go on, it is ananth, therefore Master
pushes you out of that state.
So after the first two states of viveka and vairagya, the next thing is as I have
told you, the problem of self gets solved. You now know it doesn't
exist, you also know that none of it is yours then what happens
next is you start knowing your interdependency, with which I
started the talk. Interdependence with Divine, the essence cannot
exist without the manifestation and manifestation cannot exist
without the essence, is the knowledge that you get. You are Divine,
because you are a part of manifestation and once this awareness
develops inside, that is, swaÂswaroopa gnana develops, the amount
of purity that you would like to have will get established more and
more, not that you did not earlier. You should have purity earlier,
but then here you will not allow yourself to become impure under
any circumstances, because you are afraid that you are making God
impure. Your impurity is His impurity, your defect is His defect,
your lapse is His lapse. Therefore there cannot be any such things
with us. Perfection becomes our way, whether it is in office or in
house whether it is in the street or in your prayer, perfection is
yours. You feel the interdependency with the Divine. That is the
reason why many people got stuck up when they went to the second
knot because it is purity, simple purity and when you maintain it
according to the tradition, this gives a reflection of the
5th knot. 5th knot itself is the reflection
of something else above, so what happens is Aham Brahmasmi
feeling becomes more and more predominant. This thought becomes
very very predominant here. You feel that you are the Brahman, you
are, but then you are not because that stage is far off. Because of
the reflected thing, the purity here is such, the reflection also
is such, the absolute
reflection if you can maintain that. The swa-swaroopa gnana which
means the interdependence with the Divine becomes established in
your heart and you become more and more responsible to the
manifestation than what you were earlier, because of detachment,
because of the principle of knowing what is self and what is not
self was there involved in the first knot, you were not all that
careful about many minor details. You used to neglect certain
things. You used to say that these things are bound to happen like
this, now you will not allow such things, purity will not allow
such things, it will tell you everything is to be perfect. That is
why people who are established, even like Ramana Maharshi and
others were able to say that everything is good. First he left the
house, took the renunciation very early in life and then finally
said when somebody asked is it necessary to renounce he said not
necessary. He had to come to this conclusion because he knows that
his condition compelled him to say something against what he
himself practiced. What I am trying to tell you is the nature is
such, the nature of the knot is such.
Secondly the self comes to know that though the
eternal or the energy in itself is dependent upon it for
expression, still it is secondary in nature and that is primary in
nature. Energy is primary in nature than the places where it is
expressed. The fan where the electricity is getting expressed is
inferior in status to the very nature of electricity itself, it is
very obvious. Similarly, we as individuals are fans, we are giving
the breeze to others, we are capable of giving this because of that
electricity. Electricity by itself cannot give breeze to anybody in
this world, it cannot. Energy by itself cannot give anything, only
when it is expressed it can give and it is expressed like this and
this has no business to say that I will give breeze only
selectively and that is what we do when we say when we are
expressing the Divine and when we say 'we, our people and other
things' we want to give breeze only to those people and nobody else
and that is the extraordinary selfishness of this fan. It somehow
develops an identity, somehow, maya, it is ignorance. Once you know
that you are dependent upon That, interdependency develops into a
feeling of dependency, from our point of view. God naturally feels
dependent about us, otherwise He will not ask us to assemble here
and talk. It is He who is talking amongst ourselves, He is asking
us to know what he is trying to do because He cannot do anything,
but dependency from our part is learnt only when we come to the
second knot and this leads us to the straight path or rather a
steep path towards devotion. Without knowing your dependency there
can be no devotion. Your lowliness must be understood before you
can think of getting devoted to somebody. I am devoted to my
father, I am devoted to my wife, there is enormous difference
between these two words. One is definitely far superior, another is
only an equal, equal coparcener actually. I don't know why English
got into that dirty position of saying that I am devoted to wife.
You are devoted to parents, you are dependent upon the wife. So the
dependency can give you two concepts whether devotion or
coparcenership. can be equal to God or I am dependent upon God,
these are the two feelings that you get. When you use the word
Aham Brahmasmi, it is the
coparcenership that we are talking about, I am equal to Him. My
wife, dependent upon me. I am dependent upon him, he is dependent
upon me. She is dependent upon me, I am dependent upon her. In
devotion I am dependent only on Him, He is not dependent upon me, I
am not even aware of that. To move into the realm of bhakthi, you
must understand that you are low, lowliness of your being must be
understood. Without knowing your lowliness, you will never be
devoted. We would like to have barter with Him, equal. I pay this,
you pay me, I will do this, you do that. Whole of Mimamsa suffers
from this. Mimamsa, which is nothing but Vedas, yagnas, yagas,
suffer from this. I do this, I offer this you better give me this.
I do this aswamedha, you better give this, I will give this
purushamedha, you give this, barter, business, that is the level at
which Vedas ended. That is the reason why Krishna said
Nistraigunyo Bhavaarjuna because these things are
connected with a barter level, God is compelled to obey what you
pray for, He has to grant. That's what the tradition says, I am not
here to question it, I am only questioning the attitude towards
God. So long as you have got that attitude, it is only an equal
position. In equal positions, you will end up only with Aham Brahmasmi. Aham Brahmasmi is a state of mind where you would like
to say I am equal to God. You are, none of us is less than that. It
is God in expression alone who is here. There is nothing here which
is not Divine, there is nothing here which is less than Divine.
Yet, this divinity that is in expression that is in manifestation
is dependent upon that divinity which is there above, far above,
which is the essence. When I say above, I do not mean that you have
to go to spatial level, above means something far beyond, far
beyond. I am not looking at the sky, far beyond us. So once this
dependency is understood then only your devotion starts. This
devotion starts here first, first is I would like to have some
wishes granted. You feel the dependency for granting of certain
wishes. I would like somebody to get promoted therefore I pray for
that, he is my son or he is my grandson doesn't matter much who he
is or even for ourselves. I have undertaken this business, I would
like to have profit of this, so I pray, pray to God. So dependency
can be confused with a barter. Majority of our stotras, what our
religion has given us are only prayers seeking some relief or the
other from the Divine saying that we are dependent upon you. "O God
you have got to grant me". As against it, you would have noted
already, our prayer says, "we are yet but slaves of wishes putting
bar to our advancement; thou art the only God and power to bring us
up to that stage". We would like to go beyond the stage of wishes,
we would not like to be confined to wishes. We know that our wishes
are due to our relationships, we know that our wishes are due to
our own actions, we know that, we come to know that and that is the
reason why from knot 2 to knot 3 it is a steep position. Second
knot to third knot you have to understand these things. You will
understand that whatever you are going through, you are going
through because of your own action because whatever you deserve
that alone you get. You will not get more than what you deserve,
you will not get less than what you deserve. God as a
samavarthi comes to be understood. God as an omniscient,
omnipresent, omnipotent being, everybody knows, there have been
talks about it. God as justice, samavarthi, the person who
gives balance, maintains the balance of this existence has to be
understood to understand devotion. Till that time our prayers are
only petitions asking for petty things. Real prayer is one which is
like the one we have given namely Master has given that - we are
yet but slaves of wishes putting bar to our advancement. We are not
asking God here to satisfy those wishes. We are only saying that
you are the goal of human life, we would like to come to that
stage. We want oneness with God, laya, to be in tune with the
energy, to be in tune with nature, that's what we are asking for.
We are not asking for anything less than that. We are not asking
for some petty things because those things are due to our own. The
fifth commandment 'Be Truthful. Take miseries as Divine blessings
for your own good and be thankful to God'. You read this
commandment, the interpretation given by SriRamchandraji Maharaj,
you will then understand your true nature is to be dependent upon
the Divine and then whatever He gives you, you accept it and
whatever He gives is according to our own actions. It is not an
arbitrary God who gives us 'you take this, you are my man I give
you more, he is not my man therefore I am going to deprive him'.
God is not like that, God is justice; there is no partiality in the
kingdom of God. No person is going to be treated with lenience
simply because he says SriRamchandraji Maharaj is his Master. It
will not happen, it shall not happen, if it happens that is not the
truth. It is our sentiment, which makes us feel now and then
because we are dependent upon him, several things that happen to us
are good. It is our sentiment, it is not reality, it's not the
truth. We will get what we should get, we will not get what we are
not supposed to get. Karmaphala is total and this system totally
believes in the unquestionable principle of karma, theory of karma as properly understood. It is
not the karma, that it is God has given me this punishment. That
karma is not what we are talking
about, that karma is prerogative of
other religions. In this land we believe that God will give what is
just. If you have done something you will get accordingly,
praptham, whatever we have done, equally we get. So this
principle has to be understood, that will be understood only when
you know that God is a samavarthi. So our petition-mongering mind
is accustomed to asking all sorts of things from our bosses for
nothing, the same thing will not apply here though we will try to
apply it here. That we try to apply is a fact, every one of us
tries to apply this. It's a pit fall in sadhana, we will ask for
some relief. We will have some problem, some physical problem, you
would like to go and then say 'Narayana you say that you are a
person who have been practicing this, why is it you have got so
many ailments?', because I must have deserved. When this question
was put to Lalaji Maharaj, founder of our system, when he was
suffering from enormous pain in stomach and his own disciple was
working on him massaging him and he shed tears seeing the suffering
of the Master and Lalaji Maharaj said 'if I want to I can get rid
of it now but I will not because God knows what is best'. That is
the state of dependency, that is the state of devotion, that we are
supposed to maintain always. This is the one of the highest states
that we will be moving towards. So bhakthi is not to be understood
with praises and flattery. Flattery neither does good for the
flatterer nor the flattered, it doesn't help anybody but we think
so and we are happy with flattery because it is so musical to sing
those lines. Several saints have sung, I have nothing against
anyone of them, I like them also. Their songs are very popular
today and it is the song that is popular and not the devotion,
please note it. What is more popular is what is appealing to your
ears, the music is more important to us, the raga, the tala, those
are much more important than the content, leave alone the God.
Thought content which refers to God is the third factor. What is
engrossing us is this. 'He sang very well sir, a beautiful bhakthi
song', but it is not bhakthi song, it's a song, it is a good song,
put it that way it is fine. So this devotion comes very very
difficult unless you know this principle you will never be
devoted.
Next state to which we move on in our state of
mind is total dependency on Divine. Somebody accuses you in the
street for nothing, you do not know how to react to it; he accuses
you for no fault of yours. What will you do? We will say something
in return or you will say this is will of God. Would you say that
it is what you deserve therefore you got it? See the difference in
what I am asking. I may just ignore this. Put it the other way, you
are going in the street somebody in the bus spits on you; as usual
in Hyderabad now a days still old city that problem is there, you
got to be more attentive to the fellow in the bus than yourself.
What is your reaction? Would you take it to be something that God
has given you? I will give a small story of a person who has lived
up to that expectation. A great saint Ramanuja was there, he had a
disciple who is far more intelligent than Ramanuja, who is much
more well versed in scriptures than Ramanuja. Fact, agreed facts,
there are no differences, both of them went to present saraswathi
peetam which is there in Pakistan and then they permitted him to
see one of the commentaries on Veda Vyasa's SriBhashyam. They gave and allowed him
to see Vedanta sutras and then the commentary given by dravidas
there and the king said 'I will not give a copy of this to you, you
cannot obtain a copy, you have to go, you can read once no second
time', that is the condition and Ramanuja was not
ekasanthagrahi, his disciple was. So he said 'I will make
good your defect so I will read this let us go'. So he was
dependent upon his disciple to tell what is there in that
commentary so that he can write his commentary. The concept of
interdependency that we are taking about just now was the matter of
issue. Is the self, dependent or independent, the issue is whether
the self is dependent or independent. If you say it is independent
it borders on Advaitha. If you say it is dependent it borders on
Dvaitha. It is mutually interdependent is the philosophy of
Ramanuja. The interpretation had to be given. He made it appear,
Ramanuja interpreted, according to the anecdote, made it appear as
if the self is independent and his disciple refused to write
because he was under instructions earlier saying that if what I say
is not in tune with my philosophy, you need not write. So he simply
obeyed his Master, he said I will not write, and Ramanuja got wild
and then kicked him, literally kicked him with the foot and this
fellow fell and Ramanuja walked away and after about some time he
comes back to find this gentleman still lying down and his
disciples come and other disciples come and tell 'we told this
fellow to get up saying that you are dependent upon him for the
entire information, about the subject and you are more dependent
upon him than anybody else and you kicked him out and we told him
we will follow him rather than you' and he said 'who am I to say
anything about it, my master knows what is best for me' and when
Ramanuja says 'why you did not get up' he said 'you have thrown me
down and it is for you to lift me up who am I to get up where is my
existence'. This is the narration given in tradition you may accept
it or you may disown it, but what I am trying to tell is the
psychological aspect of it. What is the state of mind? come what
may, the decision of the Divine is final, I will not make any
effort absolutely saying that I have nothing to do with anything
else, it is He who does everything. This is the state of surrender
about which every alternative person talks now a days. State of
surrender is one of the toughest we can ever think of, because that
is the state of total negation of yourself.
Now coming back to our subject of meditation
what is the state of mind there. This is philosophy, fine, I have
explained the philosophical aspect of it. What is the state of
mind? thoughts are bound to be there, thoughts of sat-asat viveka were there; thoughts of
vairagya were there, thoughts
of interdependency were there, thoughts of devotion were there. Now
what is the type of thought here? What is the type of thought you
are going to have? A state of mind when there will be no thoughts.
A surrendered person has no thoughts. How is it possible? Is it not
contradictory to my system of Sri Ramchandraji, who says that
thoughts are bound to be there till the end? He says that thoughts
are bound to be there till the end and I say that this is no
thought condition, the reason for that is you must understand what
is the nature of thought. When any idea, any concept, is not in
tune with the Divine, it gets thrown out, that is the origin of
thoughts, origin is when it is not in tune with Divine. When a
thought is not in tune with Divine, you become aware of that. It
can be disturbing, it can be enjoying but then you become aware of
that. When the thought is something that is totally in tune with
the Divine then you become totally unaware of the existence of the
thought, not that the thought is not there, thought is there but
you are not aware of its existence. The existence is the essence
itself and when it is in tune with the essence then it merges into
it and this is an experience that you will be having on first day
onwards. You will be writing as no thought, it is not no thought
that you have got, the thought that is there with you becomes in
tune with the Divinity and therefore you are not aware of its
existence. Non-awareness of the thought is entirely different from
non-existence of thoughts; please appreciate the difference between
non-awareness and non-existence. Thoughts do exist but then it
becomes in tune with the Divine and therefore you are not aware of
it and such moments are moments of silence. When you are meditating
you will find that there are moments, some seconds, fractions of
seconds or minutes while your mind goes almost blank which we
generally tend to call absorbency. Absorbed, the thought got
absorbed into the essence. The thought is there but it got absorbed
that is why we use the word absorbency, we don't use the word
concentration. So this thought, our thought which was devotion,
when it matures, what happens is that God alone or the essence
alone becomes most predominant and then you become one with it and
when you become one with it that is the state of saranagati or
state of surrender. That is how it is experienced in meditation, in
action it has to be shown and that is possible only through manana.
All these conditions, you must note you will not have it
permanently and you will have it only during meditation unless you
remember the nature of those thoughts during the other times during
the day. That is the reason why people who have got high states of
consciousness during meditation tend to lapse to the lowest levels
perceivable and this lapse is unpardonable. What is granted you
should own, you cannot squander. What is given to you during
mediation is what is granted to you and we squander it and without
any compunction and that is the worst part of it. As I told you, if
you are established in second knot in purity, and through devotion
you move on to the higher plane and always be dependent upon Him,
you cannot help remembering constantly the Divine and when you
remember the Divine constantly, purity you cannot avoid. Purity in
body and mind and in every action of course. Purity and Divinity go
together, they are alternative words. The questions of people who
say that 'I sit and do prayer without taking a bath' or when 'I
come without cleaning my feet I would like to sit', all these ideas
will not work because they are all sloth, they all are matter, they
are laziness, which will not be permitted, which is not
permissible. If you remember the Divine constantly, you cannot have
sleep, people who complain to me of sleep are people who are not
aware of Divinity I would say, because how can you sleep before
God, you cannot but then this great country has given us the notion
that in sleep God is going to be with you because He is the
essence. It is He, You are He; therefore He is there in your place.
In one of the Upanishads they say what happens to you during sleep
and then God as a watchman guards us. Who keeps you going?, who
keeps you going during night when you are asleep? not you, not your
wife, not your children, not your parents, who is keeping you? He
is the one watchman who is there. If you note that, would you come
to the level of a Banasura try to have a watchman of a Siva? You
will not, you will not sleep. These are the conditions that you
develop as you move on to the stages of surrender.
So from surrender you move on to the plane of
ether where balance is there. Equality is maintained, you are
balanced. The whole approach of Rajayoga sadhana is towards this balance. A balanced approach
we can come only when we know that everything that happens to us
happens because of our actions, we are protected by the Divine day
in and day out, we are aware of it and we live according to that
and these are all made possible by the constant pushes. Instead of
getting lost, you require a push and then that push is given
through Pranahuti by the
Master, because surrender is another place where laya is capable of keeping you in state of
surrender always, you will not go towards equality. Surrender by
itself cannot be considered as the final state because we have to
move towards equality, balance, samatva, then only you can say that
you are representing the Divine, you are a manifestation of the
Divine, the samavarthi. You have to become a samavarthi, balance in
our approach, these are the two wings with which you are going to
fly. These are two wings you have got, one is materialism, one is
spirituality, both the wings you are going to go together, each
according to our capacity, each according to our karma but according to our destiny, namely to
satisfy the Divine crying for human transformation. Such is the
human transformation that is possible in this system.
These are all the positions of the Pind desh
here (ref. Path of Grace). This system talks about points which are
above. Upto this even in tradition we have got. This is Atma
sarira, then this is brahma sarira and beyond that nobody talks. In this system
we talk about the conditions of sahasrar and beyond also. The
sahasrar is reflected here ( top of the head). There are 5 points
in between; there are 3 more behind which takes us to central
region. Regions which are behind the sahasrara were not mentioned
in tradition earlier. Nobody has mentioned it. The details with
which the transition happens during this Pind desh was mentioned by
Jnanadev in his own way in his commentary on the Gita. Jnanadev has
written Jnaneswari, a very very popular book in the Maharastrian
life. Jnaneswari mentions that. One or two saints of south have
mentioned certain points up to sahasrara, the paths are a bit
different but the conditions are same. Why they have chosen that I
have no idea because I learn them only through literature, I have
not practiced any one of them. This one I have practiced, this much
I can tell you these are all the feelings we get. I have learnt by
practice that unless you do the manana you don't own it. In the
beginning I used to think that by thinking about that condition it
will be enough, no. We should be doing the manana, constantly we
have got to do the manana aspect of it, we have got to think about
it, we can't just take it for granted because these are all the
conditions that have been given to you and you have got to own it.
It is just like a person who is taught SA RI GA MA PA DA NI SA, the
octaves are taught. Then one has to go and practice, similarly
manana one has to have it, develop it. Until he does, he will not
be in a position to have it.
So in the presence of a Master you may feel
certain things but on your own when you start feeling it then you
will become confident to talk, yes I am what I am and you will see
the change in yourself. How much of a less of a beast you are and
how much more of a man you are and how much of a sharing that you
do which is the principle of Divinity. Divinity is nothing but
principle of sharing, please note it. Sharing is the principle of
Divinity, it is with us, all of us, we want to share, many of us
want to share but circumstances compel us not to share, because we
fall victims to that, selfishness. And even then, when sharing you
would like to share among your own people, that is another nasty
habit we have got. We develop this habit. I was amazed in one
funeral when the dana had to be given, they were only searching for
the relatives to whom they can give the dana, they were other
people who are eligible for it but they were not prepared to give,
because why should we give so much of money for him sir, they asked
me, I said so much is your sacrifice, so much is your service. I
did not try to talk much because these are all points which one
would not like to discuss, one has to grow, one has to grow to that
level. It happens in some cases in this rites, in funeral rites, in
sradha rites, you have got interesting problems, you have got to
give some gold to some people you have got to, there is no
alternative to it and when you give, you would like to give to your
own people. That 's the misfortune, why this misfortune, because,
our self has not grown beyond the relationship, about which I
talked. You don't want to be your self, you want to be in relation
to some body so and so, that is the unfortunate position. We don't
want freedom we want bondage, we like bondage and so long as people
like bondage, there is nothing wrong about it, I would like them to
have it also, let them come to a state when they know there is no
use in that.
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